Garbage material reduction and separations process and organic fusion process

ABSTRACT

A new method and concept for the recovery of valuable materials from solid waste and the conversion of organic solid waste and sewage into crude oil, gas, usable elemental solids and water uses a two step process, solid waste reduction and an organic fusion process. Two resources are used in the Waste Resource Process, solid waste (municipal garbage) and waste water (municipal sewage). Waste water goes directly into the Organic Fusion Process. Solid waste requires processing for removal of non-organic products and preparation of the organics that are used in the Organic Fusion Process. Solid waste organics used in the Organic Fusion Process include, plastics, papers, food and yard waste, organic construction debris, waste oils, many household and commercial chemicals; anything with a hydrocarbon molecular structure.

PRIOR APPLICATION

This application is a divisional application of U.S. application Ser.No. 11/335,886, filed Jan. 20, 2006. Now U.S. Pat. No. 7,175,115.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a method and system for the recovery ofmaterials and more particularly to the recovery of valuable materialsfrom solid waste and the conversion of organic solid waste and sewageinto crude oil, gas, usable elemental solids and water.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The following patents are described to show some of the prior art.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,947, relates to a processor comprising means formixing a process material with a process liquid (such as water) andforming an emulsion or slurry. Means is provided for pressuring andheating the slurry, and the slurry is then fed to means for quicklyreducing the pressure to a relatively low value and further increasingthe temperature. The rapid drop in pressure and increase in temperaturecauses volatile components of the slurry to convert to a gas andseparate from the remainder of the slurry which is removed from theprocessor in the form of solids. The gas is fed to one or morecondensers which separate the gas into useful liquids such as variousgrades of oil.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,702 is for a process for time production of fuelpellets or briquettes from sewage sludge solids and municipal solidwaste with minimal drying requirements. In one of its more specificaspects, this invention relates to a solid pelleted or briquetted fuelproduct consisting essentially of sewage sludge solids, waste paperand/or refuse derived fuel, and crushed coal, and to its method ofpreparation. In still another of its specific aspects, this inventionrelates to a method for the production of fuel gases from sewage sludgesolids and cellulosic wastes.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,419, discloses a process for converting solid wasteinto a synthesis suitable for producing liquid fuel, comprising (a)partially oxidizing and combusting solid waste material in a closedcombustion zone at a temperature of 800 degrees to 1000 degrees C., andat a pressure below ambient to produce combustion gases by introducinginto the combustion zone a gaseous oxidant comprising oxygen having apurity of at least 95% by volume and carbon dioxide in an oxygen tocarbon dioxide ratio, by volume, of about 50:50, (b) conducting thecombustion gases, oxygen and carbon dioxide through the solid wastematerial; (c) withdrawing a producer gas comprising the combustion gasesand any unreacted oxygen and carbon dioxide; (d) removing particulatematter from the producer gas; (e) separating carbon dioxide from theproducer gas and recycling a portion of the separated carbon dioxide tothe combustion zone; (f) separating the less volatile, condensablecomponents of the carbon dioxide-free producer gas, from the morevolatile, non-condensable synthesis gas components thereof, and (g)compressing the produced gas at some time prior to the completion step(e). In a preferred embodiment, the more volatile components and atleast a portion of the separated carbon dioxide from step (e) areadmixed and the resulting a mixed gas mixture is reacted to formmethanol. Preferably, the less volatile components are converted bychemical reaction to hydrogen and the hydrogen is recycled into amixture with the produced gas at some time prior to the commencement ofstep (e).

U.S. Pat. No. 4,787,321 is directed to a solid waste conversion plan forthe conversion of such solid waste as old tires to a gas or liquidhydrocarbon product, wherein the partial pyrolysis of the solid waste iscarried out in a reactor having a grate in the lower section and aplurality of rotating fingers extending through the grate for preventingcompaction of the solid waste in the reactor. The reactor, a heatexchange means and a stripper are connected in series. A blower ispositioned between the heat exchange means and stripper for drawingoxygen-containing gas into the reactor and removing the gases formedtherein and passing those gases through the heat exchange means and intothe stripper.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,152,122, is defined as an improved system for producingmethane-containing product gas by the hydrogasification process. Withthe system, solid municipal waste is comminuted and dried followingwhich it is introduced to the lock hopper receivers for transference toan elongate hydrogasification reactor. Synthesis gas is introduced to alower region of the reactor and the comminuted waste, includinginorganic materials, is dried and converted to methane-containingproduct gas and char. The char is removed from the system by a varietyof separation systems including cyclone separators or aspirators and theinorganic fractured waste materials pass through the reactor but areundamaged and in a sterile condition ideally suited for recovery. Agasification reactor is incorporated with the system which receives charfrom the process as well as oxygen to produce the synthesis gas utilizedin the hydrogasification reactor. Where no inorganic materials arepresent, the organic materials may be introduced both to thegasification reactor to produce synthesis gas as well as to thehydrogasification reactor to produce char end product gas. The char isremoved from the product gas and returned to the synthesis gas producinggasification reactor. Drying may be carried out utilizing a fluidizedsand bed drying technique.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Two resources are be used in the Waste Resource Process, solid waste(municipal garbage) and waste water (municipal sewage). Waste water goesdirectly into the Organic Fusion Process. Solid waste requiresprocessing for removal of non-organic products and preparation of theorganics that will be used in the Organic Fusion Process. Solid wasteorganics used in the Organic Fusion Process include, plastics, papers,food and yard waste, organic construction debris, waste oils, manyhousehold and commercial chemicals; anything with a hydrocarbonmolecular structure.

Solid waste is processed through grinders, electro-magnetic sorting,eddy current sorting and trommels to remove inorganic materials. Theorganics are then sent through a series of grinders before being mixedwith waste water to produce the sludge for Organic Fusion Processing.Large items are removed from the solid waste before it is reduced in atub hammer mill grinder. The tub grinder reduces the solid wasteparticle size for further processing. Once ground up, the ferrous metalsare removed using an electromagnetic process and the non-ferrous metalsare removed using an eddy current magnet process. The solid waste isthen sent through a series of trommels that use weight to remove glassand other inorganics such as concrete, rock and dirt. The remainingorganics are then sent though two grinders, a gross and then finegrinding. The gross process uses a hammer mill grinder to reduceparticulate size to at least half an inch. The fine process employshammer mill and screening process reducing the particulate size to lessthan 1/16th inch. The ground organics are then mixed with waste water ata one to one ratio to produce sludge, ready for the Organic FusionProcess.

The technical advance represented by the invention as well as theobjects thereof will become apparent from the following description of apreferred embodiment of the invention when considered in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawings, and the novel features set forth in theappended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is show a flow diagram of the material reduction and separationprocess; and

FIG. 2 shows a flow diagram of an organic fusion process.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Solid waste is processed through grinders, electro-magnetic sorting,eddy current sorting and trommels to remove inorganic materials. Theorganics are then sent through a series of grinders before being mixedwith waste water to produce the sludge for Organic Fusion Processing(FIG. 1).

Large items will first be removed from the solid waste before it isreduced in a tub hammer mill grinder. The tub grinder reduces the solidwaste particle size for further processing. Once ground the ferrousmetals are removed using an electro-magnetic process and the non-ferrousmetals are removed using an eddy current magnet process. The solid wasteis then sent through a series of trommels that use weight to removeglass and other inorganics such as concrete, rock and dirt.

The remaining organics are then sent though two grinders, a gross andthen fine grinding. The gross process uses a hammer mill grinder toreduce particulate size to at least ½ inch. The fine process employshammer mill and screening process reducing the particulate size to lessthan 1/16 inch. The ground organics are then mixed with waste water at aone to one ratio to produce sludge, ready for the Organic FusionProcess.

The Solid waste process is illustrated in the flow diagram in FIG. 1.The solid waste is processed through grinders, electromagnetic sorting,eddy current sorting and trommels to remove inorganic materials. Theorganics are then sent through a series of grinders before being mixedwith waste water to produce the sludge for Organic Fusion Processing.Large items are removed from the solid waste before it is reduced in atub hammer mill grinder. The tub grinder reduces the solid wasteparticle size for further processing. Once ground up, the ferrous metalsare removed using an electro-magnetic process and the non-ferrous metalsare removed using an eddy current magnet process. The solid waste isthen sent through a series of trommels that use weight to remove glassand other inorganics such as concrete, rock and dirt. The remainingorganics are then sent though two grinders, a gross and then finegrinding. The gross process uses a hammer mill grinder to reduceparticulate size to at least a ½ of an inch. The fine process employshammer mill and screening process reducing the particulate size to lessthan 1/16th inch. The ground organics are then mixed with waste water ata one to one ratio to produce sludge, ready for the Organic FusionProcess.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the solid waste 10 is places in a mobileloader that transfers garbage to the process unit. A Tub HammermillGrinder 12 reduces all incoming garbage to minus 3-inch size. It alsohas built-in magnets that remove all ferrous metals from the flow. Theferrous metals are placed in a collection Bin 13. A Separator 14 removes(Eddy current magnets) removes non-ferrous metals from the flow and areplaced in collection bin 15.

After removal of the ferrous and non-ferrous materials, large and heavyinorganic materials are placed in separator 16, which may be, forexample, a trommel and centrifugal processes. The inorganics are thenplaced in collection ben 17. The inorganics may include, for example,glass, rock, gravel, etc.

Storage bin 18 is used to store the excess 3 inch material. The materialis then placed in Tub Hammermill Grinder 19, which has a ferrousmagnetic separator built in it, is used to reduce the excess 3 inchmaterial to a minus ½ inch size. A collection bin 20 collects theferrous material. Separator 21, using eddy current magnets, separatesthe non-ferrous metals and put them in collection bin 22.

Separator 23 separates inorganic fine material using trommel and airfloatation for the light organics to keep them in the flow and allowingheavier fine inorganics to drop out into collection bin 24.

The ½ inch size material is then reduce to 1/16th inch size inHammermill grinder 25. The 1/16th inch size material is then separatedin separator 26 which is a final separation of inorganics using airflotation. The inorganics are then placed in collection bin 27.

The ground organic material is placed in storage bin 28. A water tank29, where possible, will contain sewage waste water which is mixed withthe ground organic material in mixing vessel 20 to provide a sludge mixfor further processing.

A summary of the organic fusion process (FIG. 2) is as follows. In thefirst step of the Organic Fusion Process (FIG. 1) the organic solids andwater are mixed creating a sludge, and then injected into a mediumheated closed chamber. The heat in the chamber creates high pressures inthe sludge due to the expansion of the water in the mixture.

The increased temperature and pressure fuses the water (a simplemolecular compound) into the organics (a complex molecular compound).The water therefore penetrates the complex organic structures at themolecular level. Fusion of the organic and water molecules takesapproximately 20 minutes.

The fused organic and water mixture is then released into a lowpressure, lower temperature diffusion reactor. The water instantlychanges state into a high pressure steam. The energy of the steamrelease breaks the complex organic molecular structures, leaving simplerhydrocarbon and fractured elemental components.

Expansion of the materials in the diffusion chamber releases gases(oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and combustible gases), steam,carbons, hydrocarbons, elemental structures and various types of solidsedimentation. The steam, inorganic and organic gases are vented off.The heat from these gases is regenerated into the incoming sludge andthen separated out into their original components. A separation processis used to recover combustible gases that can then be burned to produceheat and electricity. The steam is condensed and filtered and the waterstored in tanks for later use.

The remaining solid consisting of hydrocarbons, elemental solids, watervapor and remaining trapped gases, such as oxygen, nitrogen, carbondioxide, and other free gases are mechanically moved through a dryer.The dryer temperature is kept below the kindling point, for example 400°F., of the hydrocarbons to prevent any oxidation. The drying processremoves all the moisture and remaining gases from the flow, namelyoxygen thus preventing oxidation of the hydrocarbons at the highertemperatures required during the fracturing process. The steam and gasis vented off back in to the vent conduit of the diffusion reactor forremoval. The remaining dried solids consist of hydrocarbon and elementalstructures.

The hydrocarbon rich elemental solids are then mechanically moved intothe Fracturing reactor. In the fracturing process the solids are heatedto a sufficient temperature where all hydrocarbon compounds are in avapor state. The oil vapors and remaining organic gases are vented outof the reactor into an exchanger for heat regeneration to preheat theincoming sludge. The gases are then cooled, forming crude oil andnatural gas. The crude oil is sent to a storage tank. The natural gas isstored and used for process energy. The solids remaining in theFracturing reactor are mechanically transferred out and are cooled,(this heat is also regenerated into the incoming sludge) then sent to astorage bin.

This is a closed system process, there are no hazardous gases orchemicals that are vented off or escape from this process when inoperation. Forty five percent of the original energy used to heat theprocess is regenerated into the incoming sludge before it enters thefusion reactor.

A detailed description of the organic fusion process is shown in FIG. 2.FIG. 2 shows the Storage bin 19, water tank 20 and mixing vessel 21 ofFIG. 1. The material from mixing vessel 21 is move to an injector pump31 which pumps the sludge in to heat regeneration exchanger 32. A highpressure sludge is created due to the expansion of water in the mixture.There are two regeneration exchangers. Exchanger 31 is steam/gas tosludge, and heat generation exchanger 33 is thermal fluid to sludge.Fluid Transfer pump 63 is connected to conduits of a closed loopcirculating system which transfers a thermal fluid that is heated byheat exchanger 39, this heats exchangers 41, 43, dryer 38 andregenerator exchanger 33 during process start up. When the process is inoperation, this thermal fluid becomes the heat transfer agent toregenerate the heat from exchangers 41 and 43 to exchanger 39,regenerator 33 and dryer 38.

The water and organic material is then sent to fusion reactor 34. Thefused organics and water is transferred by transfer mechanism 35 todiffusion reactor 36. Here the sludge is expanded and separated intosteam, gases, hydrocarbons and solids. Steam and gases are move throughconduit 65 to separator 64 to removal solids from steam and gas flow,and the steam and gases are reintroduced into heat regenerationexchanger 32. Transfer Mechanism 37 transfers the Hydrocarbons andelemental solids which are then dried in dryer 38. Heat exchanger 39accepts the oil vapor and gases, and provides heat for regeneratorduring startup.

Fracturing Reactor 40 is for separating of oil vapor and gases fromelemental solids which are transferred to Heat Exchanger 41. TheElemental solids are transferred though transfer mechanism 42 to heatexchanger 43, and then to collection bin 62.

As previously stated, the steam/gas to sludge is basically preformed inheat regenerator 32. It is then transferred to separator 44 whichseparates the water from the gases. The water is purified in purifier 45and placed in water storage tank 46.

The gases are dried and filtered in 47, and separated in separator 48,where the nitrogen is placed in storage tank 49. Oxygen is separated inseparator 50 and placed in storage tank 51. The elemental solids whichare transferred to Heat Exchanger 41 are then transferred to separator52 in which crude oil is separated from gases and stored in storage tank56. Gases are separated and filtered in separator filter 53. Unwantedgases are placed in storage tank 54. Pump 55 pumps the combustible gasesto storage tank 57. Combustible gases from storage tank are used tosupply energy to reactors 34, 36, 40 and exchanger 39, and gas turbine58 which is a mechanical power source for turning A.C. Generator 59.Water for turbine 58 is pumped from water storage tank 37 by water pump61 to turbine 58. Generator 59 provides Electrical power for the overall process. Transfer switch 60 is used in the Electrical distribution.

Combustible gas line 68 supplies combustible gas to turbine 58 and tofusion reactor 34, diffusion reactor 36, heat exchanger 39 andfracturing reactor 40. Conduit 67 supplies gasses and oils. Waterconduit 69 is a water conduit for injection in gas turbine 58. Theoverall control for the system is a central computer monitor 70.

1. A system for of processing waste material, including solid and liquidmaterials, into useable products, comprising the steps of: at least onegrinder for reducing the size of the waste material; a sorter forsorting the reduced size material by separating it with at least one ofa electro-magnetic process and an eddy current magnetic process; atleast one trommel to reduce the size of the material and to removedinorganic materials; a separator for separating and storing theprocessed separated inorganic materials; a grinder to process theorganic materials to reduce it to a small size; a storage tank formixing the organic material with sewerage waste water; a lowertemperature diffusion reactor for the expansion and separation of theorganic material/water material into steam, gases, hydrocarbons, andsolids; a dryer for drying and to allow the separating and storing ofthe gases; storing facility for the storage of the solid materials; anda turbine utilizing the stored gases to power and to provide mechanicaland electrical power sources used in the processing of the wastematerial.
 2. The system according to claim 1, including the step ofprocessing the reduced size material through at least one trommel toremoved inorganic materials, includes using the trommel and airflotation for the light organics to keep them in the flow and allowingheavier, fine inorganics to drop out.
 3. The system according to claim1, including a heat exchanger for elemental solids produced in the wastematerial process for providing heat used in the processing of the wastematerials.
 4. The system according to claim 1, including a dryer forseparating and storing the gases into at least oxygen, combustible, andunwanted gases.
 5. The system according to claim 1, including a heatexchanger for oil vapors and gases produced in the waste materialprocess for providing heat used in the processing of the wastematerials.
 6. The system according to claim 1, including centralcomputer monitor and control for controlling the method of processing.